Festival Of Lights
by DoctorWhodunit
Summary: Natsu Dragneel has come such a long way with Lucy Heartfilia, and he decided it was finally time for him to ask her "The Double Question". Oneshot. New headcanon: Natsu has a type of synesthesia that allows him to see the scent of the person he's in love with.


At dawn, a light breeze sighed through the blooming leaves and flowers of Magnolia Town. On a Sunday, in the heat of summer, the streets were bound to be desert, which was always thought to be a rare occurence in this rambunctious place. Calmness appeased the minds of citizens, especially those of Natsu Dragneel and Lucy Heartfilia. Cuddled on their bed with their warm tangled legs, they rested in a sweet and tender embrace for a few hours after their torrid night. Both awake, with her hair brushing against the tip of his nose, Natsu was sent to another realm only _he_ could attend.

It became a habit for Lucy's natural scent to dwell on his clothes – or all over his body for that matter. It smelled sweet, almost like honey, with a colourful shade of cinnamon. The effect she had on him never faded, even after all these years. The passionate and everlasting love he had for her and his acute sense of smell allowed him to breathe her in so he could be granted the ability to see the invisible world of scents. _Her_ scent. Natsu's eyes were welcomed by fine threads of white, yellow and green flashing lights. Music notes waved through the blinking lights in tune with the breeze from outside, as if in harmony with nature itself.

The soothing effect the partition had – even though he was never sure if he could actually read those – made him hum and almost whistle the melody. Lucy shivered as his breath caressed the top of her head.

"Tickles," she chortled, burying her head a bit closer to his chest.

He copied her laugh, which tickled her even more. "Ah, sorry 'bout that."

She smiled. "It's okay. Why were you singing?"

"That just now? Just... a song that's been stuck in my head for a while."

Lucy cocked her head to the side and lifted it so she could see his face. She was greeted by a pair of green, pensive eyes, and soft smile, the one that could put a generous amount of people at his feet. She loved this smile, for she was the one who received it the most. She internally shook her head and decided to look at his eyes to ask her question, curiosity suddenly nagging her thoughts.

"What song?"

Natsu managed not to widen his smile even more. "I don't even know," he admitted, "the tune got shot in my head a while ago and never really left, that's weird." He cocked his head to the side and his eyes widened. "By the way!" His sudden outburst made Lucy's surprised face leap back a few inches away.

"Whoa! What's with the war cry!?" She blurted, now fully woken up.

"Sorry, it's just... How come we don't have _our song_ already?"

She tilted her head to the side and blinked. "Our song," she echoed with an inquisiting voice.

"Yeah, like, we hear the song and we go 'Oh listen listen it's our song' in a cheesy and happy way! We don't have that," he complained, letting his lower lip become more visible.

Lucy's eyes widened. "You're right!" She exclaimed, "We don't have a song!" This thought hit her as if she was supposed to have considered it before. If she hadn't been that close to Natsu, she would have facepalmed herself.

"Sucks, huh? If only we ha-"

"I know!" She shouted, making Natsu shake his head in genuine astonishment. "First of all, that was payback for earlier," she teased, sending him a playful wink. "Second of all," she continued, sounding a bit more serious this time, "Levy wrote on a piece of paper a bunch of songs that she likes, there are songs in there I've never even heard of! We should take a look at those and see if some ring a bell," she suggested with an adventurous smile tugging at her face. That was new, she loved new, particularly when his goofball of a boyfriend was involved.

"Good idea, let's check this out," Natsu cheered.

Lucy winked, dropped a quick kiss and swifly let go of their embrace. She put herself on all fours, crawled to the end of the bed and simply sat. As a matter of unlikely coincidence, her purse was placed in front of the bed so, with her back on him, she looked through it and found Levy's piece of paper in a matter of seconds. Behind her, she could feel Natsu's weight shifting but didn't pay attention to it, too busy focusing on the song titles. However, a question popped up in her mind.

"Why do _you_ care about that now?" She asked, still reading the song titles. " _I often_ am the cheesy one, the one who cares maybe a little too much about this kind of thing. Why is it you now?"

He cleared his throat. "I just thought it'd be nice to have a song to dance to at the wedding."

"Oh, the wedding?" She asked. She blinked. "The... wedding." The last word had no intensity, no intonation, no emotion, it just fell out of her mouth, it was just a blank word waiting with barely restrained patience to be painted.

She blinked harder at Levy's piece of paper and started to shiver, creasing the part of the sheet where the name of the bands used to be. Curiosity and wonder filling her mind, she turned her head around to be greeted by the most astonishing sight she had ever witnessed. The shock made her drop the piece of paper, though lacking the dramatic effect of a breaking plate, the light of wonder in her brown gleaming eyes were enough to contemplate a kneeling Natsu holding an engagement ring with his shaky fingers.

"Oh my..."

"H-hey," he stuttered, "I guess you know what comes next, right?"

She started breathing through her nose, and all she could do was rock back and forth and nod with a large moaning smile. She felt like she could cry at any moment.

"So, everything I'm about to say now are prepared words. Look, even what I just said are prepared words. And that. And that. And that. Not that though." He laughed, only _he_ could crack himself up during his proposal. Lucy could only laugh with him, though her laugh was more cheerful, filled with apprehension and utter excitement. "Anyway, those are the words of a Natsu who thought a lot about what he was about to say before he said it. Please, don't expect too much from him, and don't think you're gonna see him often, okay?"

Lucy's facial muscles relaxed and nodded with lustrous eyes. "I'm all ears."

Natsu took a deep breath and made the hand that held the ring stop shivering. "I... I've spent a lot of time thinking about this. We've been together for many years, and we've known each for so much more. Really, so much more, it doesn't even make sense to me now, I don't know why it took me so long to confess, but I digress. Yeah, this part was totally written in my script. Yeah, I wrote "but I digress" in the text, I'm _that_ dorky, you signed up for that." That made Lucy chuckle, the idea of him being aware of his dorkiness grazed her mind but she never put much thought into it. "I've been alongside you during the best times and worst times, and I don't think I need to remind you of them. I've fought the greatest foes with you, and we still do to this day. We grew together as a team, and as partners, and I still want to grow with you... for the rest of my life." His voice started to shake, but he knew he had to get through with it as soon as possible if he didn't want to break. As for Lucy, tears of joy started dripping down her face, and she just wanted him to get done with it. "Lucy, I love you, and I don't think I will be able to sleep again without asking you this question. Lucy," he paused, breathed in and gathered his courage to look at her straight in the eye just one more time. "Will you marry me?"

The last word of his question had enough time to come out of his mouth, however, his breath got caught off guard as Lucy jumped on him with open arms, landing astride his body in an embrace that woud make anyone think she could be stuck in this position forever. Hot salty water dropped on Natsu's cheek, the last yet renewable remains of happiness her body had overproduced.

Natsu released a soft sigh of relief and smiled. He put a hand on her, ran the other one through her silky blonde hair, and dropped a tender kiss on the top of her head.

"And what kind of answer is that?" He asked playfully.

Lucy rubbed her eyes and took a few seconds before staring up at him. Her smile could not be contained and the fountains that her eyes became could provoke another flood at any second. Nevertheless, she kept everything in. "You freaking dork," she breathed, "yes. The answer is yes. Yes, I will marry you."

When he heard her answer, Natsu's sigh became louder, to the point of thinking that he had been holding his breath for five minutes to suddenly release it all on Lucy's head.

"Tickles, again," she chortled.

He copied her laugh, which tickled her a bit more. "Ah, sorry 'bout that."

"Natsu, you proposed in your underwear, and I said yes in my underwear too. Are you sure you planned that well?" She snickered, knowing that he hadn't thought about this detail.

"Dammit, didn't think about that!"

Lucy simply laughed. After a few seconds of thinking, she cocked her head to the side and frowned. "Hey?"

"Yeah?"

"Levy was in on it, right? With her list of songs I should check out?"

Natsu winked and showed her his trademark grin. "You betcha!"

"Sigh, I'm gonna have to talk to this little devil later, she must be enjoying the fact that she basically helped me get married." Married, the word drifted off in a place of wonder and apprehension somewhere far away in Lucy's mind. It didn't feel true yet, but the thought of it made her ecstatic and she could not restrain her glee.

"What are you thinking about?" Natsu asked.

"Lucy Dragneel." The name felt like music to her ears. She could hear power, fearlessness, but also kindness and forgiveness. New adventures, new beginnings could be heard at the edge of her assumed infinite imagination. Just a leap, and she would see it all, a new world, a new perspective. She never thought so much about marriage, she never thought it changed anything, but strangely, the idea of wearing his last name opened her eyes to new possibilities with the man of her life. Her eyes were already shining at the prospect of discovering and experiencing new things with Natsu. Thrill and excitement ran through the blood pumping through her veins. She was fired up. "I like the sound of that. Lucy Dragneel."

"Really!? You like it!?" He blurted in obvious shock.

"Natsu! Of course I like it!" Still straddling his body, she cocked her head up a bit so she could take a closer look at him. She ran her hands through his hair and ruffled it, copying his trademark grin. "Natsu, you're going to be my husband! And I'm going to be your wife!"

Natsu answered with a shaky and blissful voice. "I know."

Lucy could feel some nervosity coming from him, he had just asked her to marry him after all, so she decided to heal him using some natural medicine of her own. With her hands still in his hair, she cocked her head to the side and closed the distance between them. Eyes closed, she knew where she was headed, she had travelled the private landscape that was his lips many times before. She locked her lips with his and she could feel Natsu's whole body relax at the touch. She always thought she could burn touching his lips, but she always wanted more of it, she loved the spice Natsu could provide her. She slightly grinded on his body as she pressed her lips against his with a bit more force. She craved the spice, she wanted to swallow it all in.

Natsu's nervosity was all gone, so much so that he could exchange some moans in-between kisses and partings of the mouth, her grinding may not have been forceful, but she knew how to get the best reactions from her partner. With his eyes closed, though he revelled in the sensual moment Lucy was providing him, he wanted to know what he could see. Just a peek. A peek was enough.

He opened his eyes, and at this moment, his instinct told him that he would tell his progeny about this. This would be a tale passed down from generation to generation. And maybe it would become a forgotten legend over the centuries. At this moment, though, it was happening. Breathing her in completely, emanating from her sweet lips was a festival of colours only _he_ could contemplate. Long threads made of bright blinking lights swirled and soared above their bed to end in an explosion of alternate colours only his eyes could behold. He would not have been able to describe these colours because the human vocabulary did not have the words to explain such phenomena. However, all of the main colours the average human could perceive were showcased in a set of aesthetic lighting prowess. Green arrows shot themselves at red apples so they could combine and create a burning tree, and said burning tree would embrace the fire. An ingredient that would normally kill the tree lived with it instead, nature was in harmony with other elements of nature. The passionate fire would feed off the calm tree and the other way around. And the festival of flashing lights went on, yellow and blue, the colour of sunshine and the colour of the sea would mingle and make a harmonious partition that soothed the fire.

The meaning of colours held their importance during this very short-lived festival. Natsu knew it indicated they had it all. Red, for fire, energy and passion. Yellow, for happiness and joy. Even orange, the perfect mix between red and yellow. And so on. Harmony was the key and this festival made him realize that he already had it with Lucy, he just didn't acknowledge it, because he didn't care. This marriage proposal was an eye-opener, this proof of commitment introduced the stakes at hand, which made him realize what he needed, which made him realize what he already possessed.

And as the festival finished and left him with the usual lights and the usual partition that was Lucy's natural scent, the sun rose in the kingdom of flowers. The last lights he saw as his eyes closed were white clovers. The symbol of a promise lingered in the horizon as Lucy's breath lulled him to sleep.

* * *

 **A/N: I hope you enjoyed this piece! I thought to myself "What would make a Dragonslayer's sense of smell more interesting?" and that's how I came up with this headcanon, and I think it fits pretty well. Please, tell me what you thought about it in the reviews, some feedback, either big or small is always welcome! :)**


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